My daughter Jessica, aged 10, worked for FIDE

Tim Hanke, who was the press officer during the FIDE World Championship in Las Vegas in August and who was hired by the USCF and for that reason got paid, has posted some scuttlebutt about my daughter Jessica, aged 10, running around the event, which took place in Caesars Palace. I have decided to say something about that.

Jessica was only really there for one day, August 9, 1999, but that day was memorable.

Jessica Vithanage Sloan

Not long after we arrived, Jessica made friends with a lady who was working for FIDE by renting out headphones for $3 each to the spectators to hear grandmaster commentary, while the games were in progress. On the day in question, this commentary was being provided by grandmasters Christiansen and Seirawan.

Perhaps the most exciting and noteworthy game of the event was being played, which was Shirov vs. Short, in which Shirov sacrificed almost all of his pieces before mating Short. I watched the game, leaving my daughter to talk to the lady.

When I returned, the lady was gone. Instead, my daughter, Jessica, was sitting in the chair where the lady had been sitting and was renting out headphones for $3 each to the spectators who had come to watch the world chess championship.

More than that Willie Iclicki, the FIDE official in charge of the entire event, was coming up and telling my daughter what to do. Furthermore, my daughter had the cash box, which contained about $300, which the spectators had paid to rent the head phones.

Spectators were coming up asking my daughter for information, such as where things were located and when the next bulletins were coming out.

I asked my daughter, who was 10 years old, how this happened. Jessica said that the lady who had been renting out the head phones had quit the job and had gone back to California. Before leaving, she had turned the job and the money over to Jessica.

Jessica expressed amazement that she had $300 in the cash box (she counted the money) and that all this money was completely under her control. Nobody was watching her.

When the games of the round were finished, Willie Iclicki came up and took the cash box with the money.

It is a good thing that my son, Michael, who was also 10 years old, was not there and was not given this job, because as soon as Michael had seen the money, he would have run off with it and used it to gamble in the casino.

For this work, Jessica was paid a Coca Cola. I had thought they would give her $5, but at least Jessica can now put it in her resume that she once worked for FIDE and at least in getting paid a Coca Cola she got more than some of the prize winners received.